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Hacking Classic Video Game Systems

Posted by Zonk on from the lazy-weekend-activities dept.

ThinSkin writes "ExtremeTech has been running a series of articles on hacking your old video game systems. The madness began when they tore open an old Super Nintendo and fashioned it into a portable gaming rig. Now, more recently, they've hacked a PSOne screen, which they will use for another type of portable gaming system."

30 comments

  1. Upgrading old systems by ZephyrXero · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is eerie.... my buddy was just telling me not two minutes ago about how he had been planning on modding an old NES with new PC parts. It would be the ultimate emulator machine.

    Also strange...I just noticed that old NES is not much smaller than the Xbox...but no one ever complained about its size ;)

    --
    "A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
    1. Re:Upgrading old systems by ZephyrXero · · Score: 2, Funny

      okay...if I had fully RTFA...I would have seen that this was talking about taking an old SNES and making it portable, not quite the same...

      --
      "A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
    2. Re:Upgrading old systems by -kertrats- · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, and no one complained that ENIAC took up an entire warehouse, either...

      Technology gets smaller.

      --
      The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
    3. Re:Upgrading old systems by PedanticSpellingTrol · · Score: 4, Interesting

      PC parts in a NES? What about NES Parts in a PC?

    4. Re:Upgrading old systems by Jagasian · · Score: 1

      The original NES is about 1/2 the size of an Xbox and a small fraction of its weight. So, no, I am sorry, but the Xbox is a fat and heavy console.

    5. Re:Upgrading old systems by root-kun · · Score: 1

      Both the US NES and the original Famicom are quite a bit smaller and lighter than an xbox...

      --
      video game, ecchi, bbs and classic computing fans unite to eat sushi
    6. Re:Upgrading old systems by ZephyrXero · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not taking weight into account... Put an Xbox and an NES next to each other and tell me that again...lol.

      --
      "A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
    7. Re:Upgrading old systems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am looking at my NES, Famicom, Famicom Jr., and MicroGenius right now, with an online spec sheet of the Xbox in a browser window (I do not have an Xbox). The Xbox is far bigger than even the NES (the biggest of all the Famica), which contained the exact same electronics as the Famicom, which itself is about 3-4 times smaller than an Xbox.

      "LOL"

      Funny how people have to go back to an American re-design of Japanese 8-bit hardware to find something that distantly approximates the overwhelmingly huge size of American console hardware from a company named Micro soft.

    8. Re:Upgrading old systems by MyDixieWrecked · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Do you mean something like this?

      I've actually begun a project like this, too. I've got 3 NESs that I just dug up and have taken one apart to start. I began writing a front/backend to a sweet-ass multi-emulator program in Python/GTK.

      My current plan is to fashion the front ports into USB ports, have the box run a highly customized install of Gentoo, and use the nice mini-itx Pentium4 board they now have available. I say "plan" since I don't know if I'll be able to do certain things and time/money constraints may change certain things. A 2.4ghz box may be overkill for such a project, but I have fears that the
      1ghz VIA board may not have enough graphics power.

      I also plan on having the machine act as a video player (and connect over NFS or similar technology to my server) as well as play CDs and DVDs in addition to GB/GBA/GBC/DS/NES/SNES/MAME/Genesis/Sega/GameGear/ TG16/etc/etc/etc emulators.

      --



      ...spike
      Ewwwwww, coconut...
    9. Re:Upgrading old systems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry - its not like anyone else had RTFA and was able to correct you......

    10. Re:Upgrading old systems by ElleyKitten · · Score: 1

      Xbox:(in inches) 10 X 12 x 3
      NES: 8 x 10 x 3

      Also, if you set the NES on top of the XBox, you'll see it's a little over half the size.

      --
      "What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
    11. Re:Upgrading old systems by ZephyrXero · · Score: 1

      thank you

      --
      "A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
  2. As long as... by game+kid · · Score: 0

    those PSones can still play Rage Racer I'll be happy. Mmmm, Reiko...(makes Homer Simpson gargling noise)

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    1. Re:As long as... by ZosX · · Score: 0

      Why play Rage Racer when R4 was so much better graphically and gameplay wise? The cars looked a lot cooler too.

      --
      zosxavius photography
    2. Re:As long as... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, that was nice and pointless.

      Rage Racer is a weak volume of the RR series, and Reiko is quite ugly (one look at the RRV cover should cure any fetish you've got over this fictional character). But thanks for that anyway.

  3. I've done something similar by BlastM · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I hacked an N64 down to it's bare essentials, and put it in my PC.

    It's powered by the PC's power supply and the video and audio cables are run through my digital TV tuner card so I can play it in all it's deinterlaced glory using tvtime, although it can be plugged into a large TV or a projector and a loud stereo.

    It's great at LAN parties. Nobody can resist the attraction of a GoldenEye deathmatch. >:D

    1. Re:I've done something similar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cute! But you should replace one of your CD drives with a dreamcast :)

      Or maybe even a PStwo...

    2. Re:I've done something similar by zombie-m · · Score: 1

      This is a little off-topic, but what kind of case is that?

    3. Re:I've done something similar by BlastM · · Score: 1

      An Amacrox "G5" Venticase.

      It came with a Super Powerful 350W Good For You Power Supply! Amazing value!

      The N64's power draw is really small and the cheapo PSU runs it fine. Luckily it had an old-fashioned AT power connector so I could cut the 3.3V (orange) wire off that to feed into the N64. The alternative would be splicing into the ATX motherboard power connector, which I was nervous about doing. 3.3V isn't used very much in PCs anymore.

  4. It seemed really interesting.. by wheany · · Score: 5, Funny

    The article seemed interesting, and I read around seven pages. Then I got tired of clicking a link every two sentences. The ads took like four times the space that the text did on each page. And I filter all

    Continues...

  5. Tiny, tiny article parts by cbiffle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe it's just me, but it seems like this trend of splitting an article into tiny parts is getting worse.

    One of the 'pages' in TFA contains a paragraph. About eight to ten lines. Then you click Next and wait for it to load.

    Perhaps this is to increase ad impressions, I don't know. But it got annoying enough that I simply stopped reading.

    In a few years, I'll hate to see how far we've come.

    In
    *click*
    this
    *click*
    article
    *click*

  6. Good Site for the Topic by telstar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you're into hacking old machines into something new and portable, check out this site.

    1. Re:Good Site for the Topic by TJ_Phazerhacki · · Score: 1

      Saw this site on /. a number of times in the last few years - I still can't get over the broad range of systems this guy works on. Much better read than TFA - spend your time getting info and enjoying ancedotes from an experienced hacker - not clicking "Next" over and over.

      --
      Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!
    2. Re:Good Site for the Topic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, isn't that nice: You've linked to the homepage of TFA's author.

  7. Atari 2600 hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One useful Atari 2600 hack involves adding composite video output.

  8. *Sigh* I love and hate reading these stories. by geminidomino · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's so awesome how this guy does it, and usually gives enough info to do the rewiring on your own. The hard part (for me, at least) is making the damn cases. I wouldn't know where to start, or how to use the tools, or what... It's depressing, too. I'd love to play Suikoden or 7th Saga on a plane...

    1. Re:*Sigh* I love and hate reading these stories. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For fucks sake, get over yourself and just emulate them if they mean that much to you.

    2. Re:*Sigh* I love and hate reading these stories. by Filmwatcher888 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's easy to play old SNES games on a plane. Get yourself a Gamepark GP32. It looks like a GBA, but has tons of freeware apps and emulators. I picked mine up on Ebay, dirt cheap.

    3. Re:*Sigh* I love and hate reading these stories. by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Doesn't have that sweet warm glow that you get from a nice DIY project tho...

  9. LOL JAPAN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anonymous-chan, are we meeting up at Saucer-Eyes Con this year?

    I'm cosplaying as Nevada-tan! KAWAII!!1